Techonomy hosted the SuperSession "New Network Effect Changes Everything" at CES yesterday, featuring Rodney Brooks of Rethink Robotics, Ford CTO Paul Mascarenas, and Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg. Techonomy founder David Kirkpatrick moderated the discussion, which explored the impact of a networked society on consumers, businesses, and industries ranging from farming to manufacturing, to automotive. More
Life Sciences: What to Expect in 2013
It’s still early enough in the year that we’re all still reminding ourselves to write “2013” instead of “2012”—which means that it’s just the right time to be considering what this new year has in store for us. Every news service loves to make predictions, and here at Techonomy we’re no different. So here are our best guesses for what’s to come for the life sciences field in 2013. More
As Augmented Reality Blurs Lines, How Will Companies Respond?
Last summer, the rapper Tupac Shakur gave a surprise performance at the Coachella music festival in Indio, California, to an extremely enthusiastic crowd. The performance was stunning for two reasons. First, Shakur wasn’t listed on the line-up, and second, he has been dead for over a decade. Shakur’s postmortem performance was made possible by a computer-generated image of him paired with extremely high quality projection technology. Last month we wrote about the importance of face-to-face interactions. As technology permeates every aspect of our lives, however, the line between the physical and virtual worlds is increasingly blurry. More
Canadian Company to Scour Carbon Dioxide from the Skies
The Canadian company Carbon Engineering, formed in 2009 with partial funding from Bill Gates, has developed technology to scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A pilot plant for capturing the gas will open by the end of 2014, reports The New York Times. While the process is aimed primarily at cleaning up the environment, there may be a profit opportunity as well. The oil industry could purchase captured carbon dioxide to inject into oil fields to help extract additional oil, a widely used procedure that Howard J. Herzog, a senior research engineer at MIT, says poses little environmental risk. As oil becomes scarcer, demand for carbon dioxide will likely increase. More
Splitting the Tab with Your Smartphone
Everyone’s dishes arrive at the table, and friends settle into an excited chatter as they catch up on life, eat, and share their food. What started out as smiles and laughter end up turning into anxiety and headaches when the bill arrives. Most people ordered their own dishes, while a few also shared some appetizers. How much should each person pay? More
Is Telecommuting Overrated?
The futurist Alvin Toffler predicted the rise of telecommuting, calling the home office an "electronic cottage" that could enhance family and community cohesion. A growing segment of today's workforce telecommutes—in a variety of ways and with varying frequency. But, as reported by Slate's Evgeny Morozov, research indicates that the outcomes of tech-enabled remote work arrangements are decidedly mixed. A Deloitte report about a flexible work pilot program at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management concluded that both employees and their managers had a hard time evaluating performance, and that the quality of work suffered. And while the insurance giant Aetna allows 47 percent of its employees to work from home, those workers tend to be heavier, spurring the company to hire an online personal trainer. More
Amazon Pushes E-tailers to Deliver Instant Gratification
Retailers big and small are trying to chip away at Amazon's growing competitive edge, in some cases even if it cuts into their own profits. A number of stores and e-commerce sites now offer same-day delivery as a way to ward off Amazon's incursion into the realm of immediate gratification—one of the few remaining advantages of brick-and-mortar shopping. With Amazon hinting at expanded same-day shipping services, small companies like Shoptiques, along with bigger fish like Walmart, Macy's, and Target, are exploring ways to offer same- or next-day delivery to their online customers. More
Why Gangnam Style Marks a Triumph of South Korean Tech
When the sleek, sexy, preposterous world of PSY's “Gangnam Style” surged to become the number one video on YouTube, it offered us a glimpse of the new South Korea: an engineering powerhouse that rivals the West, a competitive economy that drives innovation, and an increasingly successful exporter of cultural memes. More
E-tailers Oblige Customers Who Want to Handle the Merchandise
E-commerce stalwarts are beginning to see the virtues of opening brick-and-mortar retail stores. Andy Dunn, CEO of formerly online-only apparel company Bonobos, told The New York Times that he was losing about half of his would-be customers because they wanted to touch the merchandise before making a purchase. So in 2012 his company opened six retail stores, where the average transaction is double the average online transaction, according to Dunn. Piperlime, Gap's online spinoff, and Warby Parker, an eyeglass company, are opening stores too, and EBay and Etsy are trying out temporary stores. These retailers are not abandoning lessons learned through their online operations: they tend to carry less inventory and employ fewer staff members, treating their new locations more like showrooms than traditional retail outlets. More
Holiday Gift Ideas for Techonomic People
With the holidays drawing near, we thought it was the perfect time to look at the top items on any Techonomic wishlist—gifts that make the most of advances in science and technology to help build a better life. Whether “better” means fuller, healthier, or simply more fun is entirely up to you. More
